how to get path in url using regex

Question

I'm not very good with regex

I want a regex expression that matches these:

http://localhost:3000/categories/football
http://localhost:3000/categories/football/2222/45444
http://localhost:3000/categories/tennis/45454
http://localhost:3000/categories/football/12
http://localhost:3000/categories/cricket/

basically, for all the above potential URL paths, I want the words after categories/ and before the second / to be returned

i.e.

football, football, tennis, football, cricket

I got this far: (categories)/\w+

but obviously, that still includes categories

just use a group for the \w+ part. You will get the content with $2 — Sebastian
– Sebastian, Commented May 25, 2018 at 11:40
I would just go for splitting on the slash instead. const [ protocol, host, page, topic, id, reference ] = route.replace( '://', '/' ).split( '/' ); return topic; — Shilly
– Shilly, Commented May 25, 2018 at 11:44
@AndrewBone I was considering that, but then a regex is more readable — mplungjan
– mplungjan, Commented May 25, 2018 at 11:46
@mplungjan things you never expect to read, "regex is more readable" 😉 — Andrew Bone
– Andrew Bone, Commented May 25, 2018 at 11:48

The fourth bird · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-25 11:45:52Z

2

You could change the capturing group from (categories) to (\w+) and use a positive lookahead (?= to assert that what followes is an optional (?=\/?) forward slash.

The values you are looking for are in captured group 1.

categories\/(\w+)(?=\/?)

const strings = [
  "http://localhost:3000/categories/football",
  "http://localhost:3000/categories/football/2222/45444",
  "http://localhost:3000/categories/tennis/45454",
  "http://localhost:3000/categories/football/12",
  "http://localhost:3000/categories/cricket/"
];
let pattern = /categories\/(\w+)(?=\/?)/;

strings.forEach((s) => {
  console.log(s.match(pattern)[1]);
});

edited May 25, 2018 at 11:45

answered May 25, 2018 at 11:40

The fourth bird

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Comments

mplungjan · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-25 11:45:35Z

2

Why not just split - if the category is the second in the pathname always

var loc = "/categories/football/2222/45444"; // var loc = location.pathname
console.log(loc.split("/")[2])

answered May 25, 2018 at 11:45

mplungjan

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1 Comment

Vikasdeep Singh Over a year ago

I would prefer this answer

Eby Jacob · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-25 11:48:12Z

1

Here you go.

var url1 = "http://localhost:3000/categories/football"
var url2 = "http://localhost:3000/categories/football/2222/45444"
var url3 = "http://localhost:3000/categories/tennis/45454"
var url4 = "http://localhost:3000/categories/football/12"
var url5 = "http://localhost:3000/categories/cricket/"

var regex = /categories\/(\w+)(?=\/?)/;
console.log(regex.exec(url1)[1]);
console.log(regex.exec(url2)[1]);
console.log(regex.exec(url3)[1]);
console.log(regex.exec(url4)[1]);
console.log(regex.exec(url5)[1]);

answered May 25, 2018 at 11:48

Eby Jacob

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2 Comments

Andrew Bone Over a year ago

That's the same as an answer from a few minutes ago 🙂

Eby Jacob Over a year ago

while i was typing the answer someone has posted the same :-D

mplungjan · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-25 11:52:46Z

0

You can use the RegEx (?<=categories\/)[^\/\n]+

(?<=categories\/) makes sure your match is preceded by categories/
[^\/\n]+ matches anything but a / or a newline 1 or more times

Demo at Regex101.

var re =  /(?<=categories\/)[^\/\n]+/
console.log(
"http://localhost:3000/categories/football/2222/45444".match(re)[0]
)

edited May 25, 2018 at 11:52

mplungjan

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answered May 25, 2018 at 11:39

Zenoo

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1 Comment

mplungjan Over a year ago

This will only work in Chrome until EchmaScript 2018 is implemented in for example Firefox

Trevor Joseph · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-25 15:23:47Z

0

You can exclude categories from your capture group

let regex = /(?:categories)+(\/\w+)/;
urls.forEach((str) => {
  console.log(str.match(regex)[1].replace('/',''));
});

answered May 25, 2018 at 15:23

Trevor Joseph

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